Unit 4:writing17是寫作英語教材中的第四單元。
基本介紹
- 中文名：第四單元,寫作、17
- 外文名：Unit 4:writing17
- 概述：寫作英語教材中的第四單元
- 具體內容：In Unit 4, the subject is 等
教材節選
In Unit 4, the subject is ‘Cheating: Alive and flourishing’. Here ‘cheating’ means ‘to behave in a dishonest way in order to win or to get an advantage, especially in an examination’. It shows nowadays cheating still exists and prevails.
When I read the passage between paragraph 1 and paragraph 8, I feel it is a little difficult to understand. In these paragraphs, there are many new words and phrases.
In paragraph 1, it appears a phrase---‘get a handle on’ in the first sentence that I had never seen before. It means ‘gain understanding or control of something’ in dictionary, but I think it means ‘know, survey’ in the sentence. In this paragraph, we can know surveying scholastic cheating is very difficult. It will make the surveyors frustrating. It is similar to survey American eating patterns. Everyone says he is watching his weight, but in fact, there are many over-weight people anywhere. ‘Form the last sentence—the snack-food industry reports record sales.’ We know people can’t help eating snack-food, despite they want to lose weight. So the example shows cheating also is hard to control, maybe they say they would not dream of cheating now, but when they have the exam, they still cheat.
In paragraph 2, what has interested me is ‘yes’, ‘but no’ and ‘and no’. These word(words) are very easy, we have learned them in middle school. But when they all appear in a(this) sentence, what is the meaning of it? ‘Yes’ is a confirmation, it shows students admit they(them) cheated when they were younger, then there are two ‘no’ after ‘but’. ‘And no’ is connect with preceding sentence, it is an apposition, it shows there are two denials. ‘But no’ shows they cheated in the past, but now they would not dream of cheating. ‘And no’ shows they deny cheating is a big problem at their schools.
In paragraph 3, there are only two sentences, but the second sentence is very long and complex. I can’t understand very well. In my opinion, it talks about a picture. There are four ‘of’ in the sentence. Does it stand for four pictures or three imaginations form the first picture? After I read these sentences again, it says ‘it is a picture of cheating…, of...’ in the sentence, it looks like just a picture. So I think it is only a picture and three imaginations from the picture, the picture is tops students at top schools exist the phenomenon cheating. Form this, we think about when the cheating students take root the bad habit, and how they develop the cheating. The third ‘of’ stand for they have the bad habit is attribute to their parents, because they pay more attention to their children’s success, not their moral develop. The last is the cheating problem will be more serious in the future.
In paragraph 4, it shows several schools want to cut down on the opportunity to cheat. They use many methods, such as giving move open-book exams, holding seminars with teachers and students to discuss the cheating phenomenon, but psychologists don’t think they are good methods. They say that the roots of the problems must be dealt with in the home. In other words, parents should help their children develop enough self-esteem.
In paragraph 5, I can’t understand ‘too many parents are abdicating that responsibility’. Here ‘abdicating’ means ‘give up’. What does ‘that’ stand for? I think ‘that’ stand for ‘teach their children about moral knowledge, let then(them) know what is honest’. The author uses Patrick Daly’s words, I think the author is (for)emphasizing Patrick Daly had been teaching in high school for 30years. He must have much experience and know his students clearly, so his word is very credible and useful.
In paragraph 6, I can’t understand what the meaning of ‘outrages’ is, so I look it up in dictionary, it means ‘to cause someone to feel very angry, shocked or upset’. Because of a child cheats on an exam, his parents are very angry. I think parents must want their children are honest and wonderful, but they done a wrong thing which is they are not their children’s pattern, because they have done what they taught to their children, so it makes children crazy. I think parents should be a good pattern.
I wonder why the author uses ‘folks’ in here and uses ‘folks’ in the paragraph1. What is the difference between ‘folk’ and ‘folks’? In the dictionary, ‘folk’ means ‘people, especially those of a particular group or type’, and ‘folks’ used when speaking informally to a group of people or someone’s parents.
In paragraph 8, from poll after poll shows college students exist cheating too. The author cites some example (examples)to show cheating is a big problem. They have many methods to cheat in the exam, such as write crib sheets attached to cap visors. What is worse, they use high technology---computer hackers were breaking into electronic college files in order to alter their grades.
